When will we get rid of coronavirus?The only question now in the minds of more than 700 crore people in the world is – when will the coronavirus epidemic end? In the meantime, more than 1 lakh people have died and more than 16 lakhs have been infected. Its levels are increasing day by day.
The virus was first diagnosed in the Wuhan province of China on December 2019. It was thought that it would be controlled in China. But within two months it was spread out of control all over the world – Europe, America, the Middle East, Asia.
Now the question is, when will you get rid of this virus? If we look at the centuries-old histories of the epidemic, we will see billions of people die of plague, smallpox, cholera, flu.
Only one plague killed 35 to 47 crore people. It took Europe 200 years to bring their population back to its original population. Every pandemic has come under control when people have known the true cause of it or any antibiotic discovery or hard immunity has been created. The cause of the plague was a bacterium, at which time the antibodies were not discovered.
It is believed that after the infection, the human body has immunity against the plague, which has been released from subsequent infections.
Many people have died in Gutisantha, unless the vaccine has been discovered. Cholera vaccine is now available; But it went away when it became known that it was a water-borne disease.
John Snow, a London-based doctor, first discovered that the main cause of cholera was the use of contaminated water. Cholera infections are still seen, where the use of pure water is low, as in Africa.
In Haiti a few days ago many people died of cholera. The discovery of a preventive vaccine in the case of the flu has saved the pandemic. The flu vaccine is given annually to those who are at high risk of infection.
Coronavirus is also a type of flu virus; But the horrors of it are deadly, unlike any other flu. Coronavirus was first discovered in 1930, which was mainly seen in animal cases. The first infection in the human body is seen in the 24, known as SARS coronavirus.
It was also alarming, the mortality rate for infected people was 30 percent. At present, Covid-19 virus is a virus similar to that of SARS. It is a single-dose mRNA virus.
Now that medical science has advanced, scientists have taken a step closer to discovering the virus by extracting genetic sequences of the virus at the earliest.
At the moment 50 vaccines are in clinical trials in the laboratory. In the meantime we will get one or two vaccines, which will be 100% effective. But it will also have to wait until at least mid-2021 to get this effective vaccine in hand.
In addition, some antiviral drugs are under investigation, which may work against the virus.
Some of the antimalarial, antiparasitic, antiviral group drugs that were already used in other illnesses show some success against the virus infection. Many pharmaceutical companies in Bangladesh make these medicines.
We see that many are buying and stocking these drugs. However, they should be used as per the doctor’s advice.
Otherwise, the person who is infected will not receive the medicine. The same applies to hand sanitizer; Many pharmaceutical companies make it, many of them are also buying and stocking it. We should not stock them, because they are always available.
Besides, we have the ability to make vaccines in our country. Incepta Vaccine Limited has produced many vaccines so far, one of which is the cholera vaccine. It is hoped that through the technology transfer, coronavirus vaccine can be made in Bangladesh too.
So it is at least clear that we must wait another year to get rid of coronavirus. At first it was thought that those who once had it would become immune to it; But we are seeing a second infection.
Therefore, it is necessary to wait until an effective vaccine or drug is discovered. Since we now know how the infection spreads, we have to be careful with ourselves.
Whenever exposed to something outside, you should wash your hands regularly with hand sanitizer or soap. Must stay at home during lockdown. Since it spreads from an infected person, we must separate the affected person from the healthy person.
Then the infection rate may be reduced. We have to control Corona, just as China has controlled coronary infection in their country by lockdown.
Until effective vaccination is discovered, our main goal is to strictly control infections, save lives.
Habibur Rahman: Officer, Incepta Vaccine Limited, April 13,2020